In rescue operations where, typically, the rescuers must move victims from an accident site to a waiting ambulance or truck they must protect the upper spinal columns of said victims with emergency cervical collars before moving them. Rescue vehicles routinely carry cervical collars of three or four different neck lengths and a rescuer must carry several of these different-sized cervical collars when he first runs from the vehicle to the location of the victim. We have, herein, made the distances from the collar proper to the occipital and mandibular support body contacts, adjustable, so that vehicles need carry only one size of cervical collar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,540 describes a cervical collar that lies flat in storage but in which the chin support automatically twists into a transverse position when the collar expands to its cylindrical form. However the patent describes no means for adjusting the elevation of the chin support.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,885 describes a cervical collar made up of two overlapping cylindrical bands where two frontal VELCRO-tipped straps can adjust their relative positions. These adjustments affect the whole upper band, however. They cannot adjust the occipital and mandibular supports altogether independently.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,051, like the above, also comprises upper and lower cylindrical bands and VELCRO means for adjusting the distance between them. Here they position the adjusting means front and back center and the adjustment of either means moves the entire upper band. The patentees disclose no means for adjusting occipital and mandibular supports independently.